u1db-discuss team mailing list archive

[Stuart Langridge <stuart.langridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2011-11-30 at 01:46 -0700, Jason Gerard DeRose wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> Before I dive into the U1DB design, I wanted to share a brain dump of
> my experience working with desktopcouch and CouchDB full-time for over
> a year, strengths and weaknesses that have stood out in both.

Thanks! A couple of notes below...

>       * Replicating views, storing views in the DB - from the desktop
>         perspective, views are app data, not user data, so get them
>         out of the user's database! different devices will have
>         different apps installed, and different versions at that; plus
>         in my experience, it seems easier to stabilize the schema than
>         the views... so separate them!

Yep. This is one of the reasons why U1DB indexes are not synced; you
create them in each instance of a u1db separately, so you can create
indexes which are most appropriate for the device you're on.

>       * Tried to freeze API too early - I know there were nothing but
>         good intentions behind this, but having a great API is more
>         important than maintaining backward compatibility, especially
>         early on... your early adopter devs will happily chase a
>         changing API if it's improving... and please utilize feedback
>         from your early adopters!

,,,and this is why we're having these discussions right now. We're
planning to release a "tech preview" of u1db precisely so that app
developers can comment on the API, give thoughts on what else it might
need to contain to be useful for development of apps, and so on.

I broadly agree with your other points, and thanks for outlining them!

sil